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Feminist literary criticism intro
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Literary analysis of house on mango street
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Luz Rodriguez “It is estimated that over 40% of us will feel the aching pangs of loneliness sometime in our life”. This is stated in an article from Physocologytoday.com. The alienation that many people feel are not always physical, but also emotional and mental.
In Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, a young, impoverished girl with Hispanic origin, named Esperanza adapts to her new life in Chicago, on Mango Street. Throughout her time living on Mango Street Esperanza observes how other people are living around her, especially women and young girls like her. Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own.
Mitchell Curtis English 9 / Period 6 Mr.Boyat 17 October 2016 Three Influential Characters in The House on Mango Street In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the story is developed through the eyes of a young girl Esperanza. She learns about the realities of life in a house that she recently moved into. There are many characters that are written as she learns about her new neighborhood. The three most influential characters in the novel are Sally, her Mother ,and Marin.
According to Merriam Webster, a novella is an Italian term, which derives from the word “novel,” and means a short novel or long short story. There are numerous novellas in the world of literature; some significant examples include Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A theme of “influences” is displayed throughout these novellas and can influence our perspective on life. Another popular high school novella is Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, where protagonist, Esperanza Cordero encounters multiple characters, such as Sally, Sire, and Nenny, who help influence her life in both negative and positive ways.
In the memoir The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, many characters try to escape Mango Street and to a better life away from the oppressive gender stereotypes that they are forced into. In the chapters “Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice” and “Marin” the two characters, Rafaela and Marin, both want someone to take them away, allowing them to escape Mango Street. Both characters struggle with the gender stereotypes forced on them as men around them disrespect them for how beautiful they are. Finally, both characters have no power over their financial or living situations. Marin hopes for a man to take her away from Mango Street and get married.
Through Esperanza, the protagonist of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, we see life in a poor, working-class neighborhood in Chicago. As a character, Esperanza is characterized by her longing for a better life, her desire for independence, and her sense of self-awareness. Despite their similar struggles and aspirations, the other women in the novella approach these challenges differently, illustrating the diversity in their community. The character of Esperanza is complex, as she struggles with questions of identity and self-expression. In spite of her gender, ethnicity, and social class limitations, she refuses to let them define her.
The House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age novel that was published in 1984 by a Mexican-American author known as Sandra Cisneros. Sandra Cisneros's first novel was House on Mango Street, which is a story that is based on Cisnero’s own experiences. This story follows the main character, Esperanza Cordero, who is a 12-year-old Mexican-American girl growing up in a Hispanic neighborhood who has moved into a house on a street named Mango Street. The story shows how the neighborhood and community play important roles in the shaping of the different characters such as Sally, Esperanza, and Alicia. Firstly, Alicia is a girl whose mother has passed away leaving her to pick up and play with the women of the house doing the cleaning, cooking, and taking care of her
She spends her days sitting at home and looking at objects. She is not allowed to talk on the telephone or get out of her own house. Even the very little freedom that she can have is taken away from her. Although Sally has a nice house, it is not a house of her own, but more like a cage. From illustrating the examples of women trying different ways to escape, The House on Mango Street reveals that only independence can offer a better life and freedom.
Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities.
In this type of narratives, women are represented as subjects, capable of relating their own story. However, despite the increased room for the subjective representations of consciousness, the maternal perspective is still silenced under the weight of the daughter 's emerging subjectivity. In Oranges, the mother herself renounces to her power to speak. When she starts suspecting that her daughter’s lesbian tendencies, and thus the girl’s deviance from the heterosexual norm, may be due to the power they were given inside their religious community, she decides to step back, affirming that ‘the message belonged to men’.
Feminism is a subject appearing in many books. In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, women are oppressed by patriarchy socially and psychologically in many different instances. These include the abusiveness of fathers and husbands towards girls, dreams of escaping an enclosed world, and the conventional ideologies of women’s roles. One instance where women are oppressed socially occurs in the vignette Marin. Marin, a neighbor of Esperanza’s, though she has a likable personality, is limited in the things she can do simply because of her gender.
The House On Mango Street: A Study in Feminine Obligation To attempt to thrive in a society plagued by maltreatment and despotism is like trying to build a house of cards in the middle of an earthquake. Failure is the only possible outcome, and opposition simply ends in shame. Thus, in the House On Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros suggests that women fail their responsibilities of protection for each other when surrounded by a male dominant society, as shown in the relationship between Esperanza and Sally.
Susan S. Lanser’s “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the politics of color in America” examines the impacts “The Yellow Wallpaper” had on feminist writing styles and critiques. Lanser writes that the story helps to analyze the reading trough “the lens of a female consciousness” and apply the knowledge gained from a female perspective onto other literature (418). The transition that the narrator displays from being dependent on John to becoming independent reflects the feminist movement and challenges the “male dominance” that currently takes precedence in society (418). The “patriarchal prisonhouse” that is society controls the narrator and oppresses women not only in “The Yellow Wallpaper” but in real life as well (419). The
Female African American writers tend to focus more on the experience of black women (which we will consider for this novel). Black women are often introduced as the minority in the race, especially seen in writings during the 1970’s. Most of these writings have female characters who have domestic duties, which can reveal the passing of traditions and cultures from one generation to the next and the role of a woman in an inconvenienced household. They also deal with the image and perception of the Black woman, whether through looks, skin color, or her voice. The woman’s narrative is often formed gradually, often times alongside a woman who has already discovered herself, but we must consider that “it may take the form of exploring one’s own abilities, needs, and desires” (Tyson, 391).
“No, this isn’t my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I’ve lived here (Cisneros 106).” This quote shows Esperanza’s unwillingness of accepting her poor neighbourhood because of the violence and inequality that has happened in it. In the House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, shows that there is a direct link between inequality, violence and poverty. The House on Mango Street shows women are held back by the inequalities that they face. Cisneros shows that racism prevents individuals from receiving job opportunities which leads to poverty and violence.
